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Watch this guy build the biggest bench vise ever!
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I'm seriously impressed. This guy's shop skills are master class level. PLUS - he owns and knows how to use a SHAPER. These machines predate milling machines, and can make a shaving the size of a 2 by 4 (kidding), but it's incredible to watch. That shaper was probably over a hundred years old and it STILL WORKS LIKE A CHARM. I was a tool & die maker for 40 years, and I've never even seen one in person. Only the old timers knew how to run one. And I love his radial arm drill. I used to operate a 10 foot tall one when I worked at Beechcraft in the tool shop. Makes a drill motor look like a child's toy.Act your age, not your shoe size. - Prince
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Originally posted by studemax View PostI'm seriously impressed. This guy's shop skills are master class level. PLUS - he owns and knows how to use a SHAPER. These machines predate milling machines, and can make a shaving the size of a 2 by 4 (kidding), but it's incredible to watch. That shaper was probably over a hundred years old and it STILL WORKS LIKE A CHARM. I was a tool & die maker for 40 years, and I've never even seen one in person. Only the old timers knew how to run one. And I love his radial arm drill. I used to operate a 10 foot tall one when I worked at Beechcraft in the tool shop. Makes a drill motor look like a child's toy.
It's good too see companies like Fireball Tools still using the old tech that built this nation into a manufacturing powerhouse that it used to be...
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That shaping machine raised an eyebrow over here too. One of the first machine shops I worked at had pre/post war machinery and the shop is still around 25yrs later using the same stuff. The owner taught me how to make tools for and run Peerless shapers, and power hacksaws, pre-war Acme Girdleys, Brown & Sharpes, Cincinnati mills, Warner & Swasey turret lathes, Monarch engine lathes etc... The basement of the shop had an early 1900's Fairbanks Morse hit skip motor powered generator that ran the shop when power went out, and belt driven machinery from the late 1800's early 1900's that was still in use. There is a forge house out back with a 1919 Bullard vertical turret lathe. The shop made a lot of new and refurbished parts for steam engines and did job shop work to keep the bills paid.
It's good too see companies like Fireball Tools still using the old tech that built this nation into a manufacturing powerhouse that it used to be...
Act your age, not your shoe size. - Prince
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Originally posted by studemax View Post
So you know what I'm talking about. I've been writing and using G code since the late 70's, but I always had more fun running conventional machines compared to the CNC stuff. I used to love running this old Cincinnati Die Mill. The head was powered and could run in either direction as well as the spindle, and the knee was powered. I could make parts on that faster than a CNC guy could write a program. At Beech we had a forge and did our own heat treating and hammering out red hot parts. I used to love to run this giant surface grinder that was bigger than my grandmothers house. Gawd, the sound that thing made when you fired it up! I blew up the grinding wheel on that thing once, and half the shop ducked for cover while the rest ran to see if I was still in one piece. I used to entertain the foreman while running this big horizontal lathe by making the chips fly up and over the railing into the pattern makers shop upstairs. When I cleaned up the chips I had to sweep the 2nd story and the 1st story. But if you wanted clean hands at the end of the day I ran that French wire EDM. All the parts were underwater, and the tank drained when the part was done. Easy cleanup, just dry your hands with a towel. Man - those were the good old days. I still dream at night of working in that shop at Beech, making parts all night. I wake up tired out but happy.
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Stude: I took Machine Shop all through High School (fall of '76 thru to end of Jun '79), and we had a shaper in the shop, used it plenty of times, not that difficult to use, and surprising how good of a surface finish you could get, with the right settings.
With all my H/S M/C shop, had I signed up as an apprentice, I could have challenged the First Year exam after only 125 hours of work experience......sometimes regret not going down that path.......
James
Originally posted by studemax View PostI'm seriously impressed. This guy's shop skills are master class level. PLUS - he owns and knows how to use a SHAPER. These machines predate milling machines, and can make a shaving the size of a 2 by 4 (kidding), but it's incredible to watch. That shaper was probably over a hundred years old and it STILL WORKS LIKE A CHARM. I was a tool & die maker for 40 years, and I've never even seen one in person. Only the old timers knew how to run one. And I love his radial arm drill. I used to operate a 10 foot tall one when I worked at Beechcraft in the tool shop. Makes a drill motor look like a child's toy.
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I am so glad you did. People can enjoy happy, well paid lives without a college education in the trades. Many people used to sneer at Jesse James because he was crude and got dirty working. But kids thought he was cool, and I was so glad they could see they didn't have to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants. They could have jobs where they used their brains AND their hands - the best of both worlds in my opinion, and frankly what our bodies are supposed to be doing.Last edited by studemax; November 30, 2020, 01:22 PM.Act your age, not your shoe size. - Prince
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